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Over the last six weeks I've been using Samsung's flagship handset, the Galaxy S5. The smartphone strategy of the South Korean company hands this flagship a huge amount of responsibility. It needs to be able to command a significant volume of sales and providing revenue and income to the parent company; it needs to be seen as a leader in mobile technology; it needs to be a handset that people want to buy; and if they can't afford it, the halo effect should see them happy to purchase another variant of the Galaxy S5 family.

Just before and after the release of this handset, reviews focused heavily on the technical specifications, the integration with online services, the biggest numbers, the improvements over previous handsets, and a forensic examination of the hardware and software. That all set the tone of the handset in terms of its technology and how 'advanced' a company Samsung was seen as - the first part of the year-long mission of the Galaxy S5. The honest answer here, is that Samsung dropped the ball. I labelled the handset as being a natural iteration of the Galaxy S4:

The Galaxy S4 was clearly a safe device. The Galaxy S5 continues that impression, but one year later I was expecting more from the hardware and the design. Instead the S5 has a few more gimmicks that don’t appreciably add any value to the handset.

The Galaxy S5 has still kept the brand name ahead of the chasing pack of Android devices, but the peloton of handsets are closer to the leader than in the S3 and S4 years. Handsets such as the Xiaomi Mi 4, The OnePlus One, and Sony's Xperia Z2, are all matching the Galaxy S5 in specifications (and in some cases have leapfrogged Samsung's handset), with the Mi 4 and the OnePus One also using Qualcomm's Snapdragon 801 CPU, a slight improvement on the Snapdragon 800 inside the S5.

The additions made to the specifications included a number of practical factors. My favourite is probably the IP67 certification for protection of the handset against dust and water. It's utterly practical, useful, and as a passive technology the only thing you need to be concerned about is making sure the charging flap is closed (plus the UI will pop up a warning dialog to help you remember to do this).

Samsung Galaxy S5 (image: Samsung PR)

The fingerprint scanner, integrated around the home key, is another feature that gives the Galaxy S5 parity to another handset. In the case of IP67 it was Sony, and in the case of finger ID it is with Apple. While the implementation is not as smooth as that of the iPhone 5S, the accuracy of the scanner which asks you to swipe your finger over the reader has been very high. Yes, you need to swipe downwards and with the full pad of your finger, but it does work. From a consumer point of view, the waterproofing and the fingerprint security are key updates.

Then there are the gimmicks, and much as Samsung has placed a lot of focus on health and the quantified self throughout their handsets and wearable peripherals, the heart rate sensor just under the camera and LED flash has been little more than a novelty. I've rarely used it, and when I have needed to take my heart rate while on the move, I've invariably used a smartwatch with similar facilities. Someone looking for a fitness tracker will not be using the Galaxy S5 on its own - they'll probably pair it up with the Gear Fit.

From a hardware leader point of view, the Galaxy S5 scrapes a pass, but I expected much more from Samsung after the technological leaps pushed in the S3 and S4 in previous years.

The counter-balance to the 'geek cred' of the handset is the 'street fred'. Do people want to buy a Galaxy S5?

The simple answer is yes, but maybe not enough of them. A recent report in Reuters puts sales at the five million mark for May 2014, which sounds great. In context it shows a slowing demand for the Galaxy flagship. It has been outsold by the older iPhone 5S which had sales of seven million units in May, and year on year the Samsung Galaxy S4 also sold seven million units at this time last year.

It's worth noting that the real consumer comparison should be with the Galaxy S3, and not the S4. Thanks to twenty-four month contracts, more S3 users will be looking at a new phone and an update to the S5 than S4 owners. Unfortunately it's not as easy to make comparisons of the S3 and S5 sales beyond, the S5 is not performing as well as the S4.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 (image: Samsung PR)

Consumers that do go for the Galaxy S5 are going to find a handset which has a split personality. Google, through the licensing of the Google Play software, has ensured that their software and applications are easily found on the handset - Gmail, Google Docs, Calendar, G+, and more - but Samsung want to push their variants of the basic software, so their options are as visible as they can make them inside the agreements they have with Google and other third parties.

The replacement apps in the PIM suite are functional and get the job done, but they don't feel as well-integrated into day-to-day usage as Google's choice of applications. They work but do not sing, and in a 'taste test' I suspect many people will go with the American app rather than a South Korean app.

I'll be interested to see if Samsung updates these apps to the new style and look of Android L when it arrives before the end of the year, and how Samsung handles the new look of the apps which will not always match up with the sensibilities of Samsung's TouchWiz UI.

I've covered Samsung Health as part of the review of the Gear Fit, but it's worth noting the 'Samsung Apps' store. It will feel to many like a rather sparse app store compared to Google Play, but if Samsung is going to break away from Google with their Tizen platform, they need to build up awareness and a user base of their own store. Pushing users of the smart wearables to the Samsung store to download and update the software is a subtle but useful signpost to get as many people into the store and using a Samsung account as possible.

Samsung has also drafted in a number of third-party applications to bulk up the unique offering of the Galaxy S5, such as Flipboard being used to power the 'My Magazine' application that can be found on the far left of the home screens. Not only does this typify Samsung's approach to bring in third-parties to bulk up the apps on offer, but it also shows a weakness through a lack of attention to a few details in each app. In some screens this app is called 'My Magazine', in others it is called 'Flipboard'. Sometimes when you go back to the top-level of the app you end up on the Flipboard home screen, other times you find yourself in the My Magazine view.